I have been working with a photographer friend on getting him so more "buzz" and part of our strategy is getting him noticed on Google. We have noticed an odd situation: his site is showing few "backward links" indicating that sites are linked to him. Getting highly ranked sites to link to you is very powerful.
He mentioned that he is a member of two large associations that have sites for their members to be listed on. These sites have high page rankings and we were wondering why his link on those pages was not showing up in his ranking.
I investigate. I am appalled. The code for these sites was abysmal. On one site, the designer had decided to use Flash buttons for the link to the gallery lists. Google doesn't see the link in the Flash button and doesn't follow the link. Stupid mistake -- and for what? The sites also contained no metatag information. None. Page names were lame, code was just awful... no wonder.
The pages had high ranking, but I think that is because of the photographers typing the URL in Google and going to it. Wow... if you type the URL in Google you come up first... Yeah, and if I dial your phone number you answer... big deal.
So here is a large association, collecting dues and pointing to the website as a 'helpful' tool for the photographers when it actually, well - isn't. No photographer on either site is getting any help from the links to their site... cause Google can't see them.
These things can (must) be worked out in advance by using designers who understand what it is you are trying to do. You should know what you are trying to do as well. To have a site that does not meet the goals of itself is wasted energy and not helpful to the users, members or visitors.
BTW - I am not going to go into all of the silly things that were done on these sites, this was the focus of the investigation that we did.
How does your site rank?
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